Steele right at home on Bama staff

Coaching at Alabama is a dream come true for a man who spent much of his youth in Tuscaloosa.

But it took several coaching stops along the way before Kevin Steele ended up back in Tuscaloosa as a member of the Crimson Tide coaching staff.

His journey began when he played under Johnny Majors at Tennessee in the late 1970's. He then began his coaching career, serving as a student assistant, graduate assistant and then a full-time assistant with the Vols.

He later made stops at New Mexico State and Oklahoma State before going back to Tennessee for two years. Steele then spent six years at Nebraska, helping the Cornhuskers win a national championship in 1994.

Steele then made the jump to the NFL with the Carolina Panthers. He then went back to the college game, spending four seasons as head coach at Baylor. For the last four years Steele served as linebackers coach at Florida State.

When Alabama hired Nick Saban in January, Steele was one of the first hires by the new Tide head coach.

"I really enjoyed being at Florida State," Steele said, before speaking at a coaching clinic at the Marriott Conference Center on Friday. "It is a great place to coach and it was great to work with Coach (Bobby) Bowden.

"But when the opportunity came along to work for Nick at Alabama, I didn't have to think about it long. It was an easy choice."

Steele has been a man on the go since arriving back in Tuscaloosa in January. Although he has been working nonstop for the past six months, he said he is thrilled to be coaching at Alabama.

"Alabama is just a special place," he said. "It has always been special and it always will be. At Alabama you have all the tools that you need to be successful.

"It all starts with these outstanding high school football coaches. The high school programs in the state really make football special in Alabama. There is a lot of pride in the high school programs and in the state universities."

As he spoke to the coaches about linebacker play, Steele often talked about coaching in the NFL.

Steele said he enjoyed coaching in the pros, but is happy to be back in the college game.

"I've coached in the Big 12, the ACC and the SEC and it is hard to describe the passion people have for college football," he said. "It's just a way of life for them. The pro game is also great, but it is different. Obviously, I prefer the college game."

Steele has plenty of family nearby. He said that almost his entire family lives within 80 miles of Tuscaloosa.

One family member that lives a littler farther East is his younger brother, Jeff, who is an associate athletic director at Auburn.

"It's a little ironic with him being at Auburn," Steele said. "I see him quite a bit and we both laugh about it. But it will certainly make things interesting for our family."

Jeff McIntyre can be reached at 740-5737 or jeff.mcintyre@timesdaily.com.